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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

One Million Yellow Butterflies

Loved making my first canvas! I wanted to recreate a memory I had with my brother when we were younger. I love the result!

The Story: My brother and I were on a bike ride in Vermont. I was trailing behind him and as we started down a big hill, it looked like he was going to ride right through a bunch of leaves on the road. As he approached, I could see that those leaves were in fact Swallowtail Butterflies that all took off into the air as he rode through. Since I was behind him, I was able to see the incredible site of one million yellow butterflies rising from the ground and flying into the sky around him.

I covered the canvas with gesso and then gel medium. I made impressions into the gel medium with silk flowers, and container tops.

After the gel medium dried, I worked the paint into the canvas and sprayed it with the Fountain Pen dye ink in a mister. You don't have to be an artist to get a great title and journaling on canvas. I used Jenni Bowlin Studio letter stickers and love the look I got. Rubons applied to the canvas easily also.

I applied some of the butterflies onto the chipboard and some I adhered directly to the canvas. After everything was placed where I wanted it, I covered it with a layer of Mod Podge to seal it.

The beauty of using the JBS paint and ink products with other JBS products is that the colors coordinate and blend with each other so well!